Iron Goat!

The Iron Goat trail follows what used to be a railroad through the Stevens Pass area; if I'm not mistaken, the term "Iron Goat" refers to trains. I was inspired to try this trail for a variety of reasons. First of all, it's one of the closer hikes featured in Charles Gurche's Washington's Best Wildflower Hikes, and I was in the mood for flowers. Second, I wanted a trail easy and short enough that I would not be in huge trouble in the event of afternoon storms--which, in fact, there were, but right after I left. Perfect timing.

Now down to business. First are some flower closeups I took. Flowers are everywhere along this trail - tiger lily, columbine, bluebell, false lily of the valley, cow parsnip, springbeauty, Cooley's hedge nettle, pentstemons, and still others. It quickly became apparent to me why Gurche chose it for his books. Also, fireweed is growing profusely; when it blooms, the trail will be amazing.

The first one is cropped a bit to resemble what I had in mind. On a narrow trail with thick plants crowding in, it can be hard to get my camera and tripod set up as close to flowers as I'd like. But, with cropping, I think this tiger lily came out well. I had really wanted to capture the underside of the flower, something I don't think I've really tried with flowers.

Also, after a few recent disappointments, I finally stumbled across some wild columbine. They must really like water, since I usually found them growing by streams or in boggy areas. This was my best of the lot:

This next one I would like except for the out-of-focus stems on the left. So close, though!

The Cooley's hedge nettle are beginning to pop out in a few spots. After a couple abortive attempts, I finally found a plant at a suitable height for my tripod and took this picture:

Finally, a mossy surface covered with flowers, springbeauty I believe.

Another highlight of the trail was the incredibly lush forest. I don't think I've ever seen a forest with such a thick understory of ferns. On many trails, going off-trail is simply in bad taste unless absolutely necessary. On many parts of this trail, though, it would have been impossible. Alders predominated. Overall, it was one of the nicer second-growth forests I've been in. Here are my best compositions:

The trail also has some nice views, I found, that get better as you keep going (and get a better angle looking into one of the far away valleys). This shot of cow parsnip and the view turned out okay - the colors are a bit dull, partially because of the harsh midday lighting. It was filtered a bit by clouds, but not enough at that moment. Oh well, it's okay, and a concept to save for different conditions.

Finally, this shot of some ferns and one of the streams along the trail. I originally shot it at f/6.3 to isolate the fern in the foreground a bit more; upon further reflection, I decided to also try it at f/8. I ended up preferring the latter aperture - it gave some more definition to the mini-waterfall, which is an important part of the composition.

There are also some historical structures along the trail: old tunnels, snowsheds, etc. from the railroad. I didn't focus on these, only taking this one photograph of one of the tunnels:

Ira Spring Trail

Recently I hiked the Ira Spring trail off of I-90. It was a summer Saturday, so it was quite the popular place! Not at 6am, of course, but soon thereafter. I also enjoyed some brief hours of shade lighting and (and coolness) before the sun came around the hillside. Note that almost all of my best pictures were taken in the shade.

The real highlight of the hike was the profuse flowers along the way. The views were nice, of course, but most of the surrounding mountains weren't all that snowy anymore, and sometimes defaced by logging and roads. I tried to get some new perspectives on some of the usual suspects (tiger lily, paintbrush, lupine).

This was my best of tiger lily. Cropped, it might seem more intimate and be a bit more interesting. I was able to capture some symmetry, as well, which is always nice. I've realized that I don't do enough symmetry; I'll be attempting more of it in the coming weeks if all goes as planned.

Next come the explosive bracts of scarlet paintbrush (the red parts are not actually the flower, apparently). The first of this pair is the best - again, a symmetrical composition.

Finally, lupine. I am not going to bother to try to identify which species right now. I wanted to get a unique perspective on a blooming lupine, with the leaf arrangements expanding in the background. This was my best, although I'll certainly be playing with this compositional idea in the future.

Now, introducing a flower new to this blog: beargrass (Xerophyllum tenax)! These two were my best compositions involving the flower. In the second one, the background lines are pretty well unified, although the picture could've stood a narrower depth of field. Oh well. Next time.

Unfortunately, as is often the case on dry summer days, harsh midday lighting was quickly upon me. It was lovely to see and feel, with warm sunlight flooding the meadows, but put a virtual end to my picture taking. I did, however, squeeze this last one out (Rainier is the mountain in the background). I wish I had tried a wider depth of field (to get the mountain in focus), but I still like it. The composition is nice and simple. Perhaps the narrow depth of field helps keep the attention on the flowers.

Fun with Shutter Speeds

It's been quite a while since I've been to Carkeek Park for a sunset. While the view from the beach is pretty darn wide, that's about all the beach has going for it (that is, there aren't very many interesting plants). It was too breezy to take pictures of the plants that were interesting, and my experimental pictures of some of the plants living in the water turned out rather poorly.

My pictures of the sunset itself, however, are worth seeing. The breeze at least made the waves a bit choppy, which looked cool. The first had a 1/1000 second shutter speed (to freeze the water), the second a 1/10 second (to blur the water). If I were to use this concept again for the first picture, I would try to take a picture in which the waves got a bit higher, and in which there was less debris in the foreground. In the second picture, there is a little splotch in the lower left that came from a drip of water that got on the lens. I'll have to be more watchful of that in the future when photographing near water.

Also, the clouds were awesome. They looked like crowns for the trees. As I took my pictures another man saw me, looked over at the clouds, and pulled out his camera. If people like my ideas well enough to use them, then by all means, they can be my guest! I am flattered!

A Hazy Evening

The other night I (guarded by my brother) went to Richmond Beach to photograph the sunset. Why did I need to be guarded? Because Richmond Beach, while aesthetically a nice park, is usually pretty crowded and sometimes has some interesting characters. Most of them are just youths having a good time. But you never know.

The sunset was very red-orange. Cliff Mass' weather blog tells me that this was in fact due to smoke from Asian wildfires drifting over the Pacific! Crazy.

This was my best of the evening. An exposure time of 1/15 sec blurred the water a bit without blurring it too much, providing a good sense of motion.

The first thing I noticed while in the park was how colorful some of the Scotch broom seeds were - a veritable rainbow! The second thing I noticed was the soft light that was falling on them (the sunlight was diffused by the haze). This was my best ensuing shot:

I was also able to snag a few interesting plant-and-sunset shots. In this first one, I used a narrower aperture (f/18). This is why you see the rays coming out of the sun.

Finally, this last one violates my usual aesthetic principles--it has houses in the top right hand corner! I usually try to avoid human creations in my work. Still, the shot turned out nicely enough.

Whoops!

Getting up at 4am is difficult for many, if not most, people. It is even difficult for me. What's worse than that, though, is getting up at 4am, driving to Discovery Park, and realizing that you forgot your filters at home! Luckily, I keep my macro lens' polarizing filter on the lens itself, so I was still able to use that. I used my macro lens for some other shots as well, but I found it being confined to a 50mm focal length. I generally like to go wider.

Obviously, then, the highlight of the morning was flower shots. I'll start with my best, a backlit fireweed flower with some dew hanging on it:

The next one is of an ocean-spray shrub blooming. Compositionally, I think it turned out fairly well. The blossoms in the background complement those in the foreground and don't make the image too busy.

There was a light mist hanging in some of Discovery Park's meadows. While I was limited to a focal length I normally don't use for these types of shots, I did get a few nice results:

This last one I actually did shoot with my normal lens; since I was shooting into the sun, I didn't really need a polarizing filter.

I-90's Best Secret

The Gold Creek Trail (#1314, Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest) has to be one of I-90's best, most surprising secrets. It's very easy to drive to from the interstate, but I hardly ever see any one there. Even the Gold Creek Pond, an adjacent ADA-accessible loop trail, is usually relatively bereft of visitors. Not that I mind having the place to myself. But the area is very lovely, and few people know about it!

Shortly after its starting point, the Gold Creek Trail passes through a rocky area with expansive views of the ridges/mountains on the other side of the valley. This time, I think I got a more interesting photographic take on the views than I did last year. This one, for example, puts the trail's lush foliage into the foreground. It could use a bit of lighting work, but it's really pretty close.

This next one I like compositionally. It needs some serious lighting and color work, obviously. But I like how the lines of the branches converge toward the mountain. I also like the juxtaposition of the lush green leaves and the still-snowy mountain.

At the place where the trail passes the gravel beach on the creek, I set my tripod up among the rocks on the edge of waterway (after dropping it in the drink, of course). I was pleasantly surprise that I was able to expose this one relatively well: the dark trees and the illuminated hill fall generally within a useable tonal range.

Now, on to some of the flowers. This first one I haven't identified yet (is it a thistle of some kind?) But I got a pretty good picture of one if I may say so.

There are a lot of bluebells (specifically, western mertensia or broad-leaved bluebells, Mertensia platyphylla) that are just beginning to bloom. This particular plant, fortunately adorned with dew, I managed to photograph at just the right moment. The plant had been shaded, but I took this photograph just as the sun was peeking over the large shrubs on the other side of the trail. So I got some sunshine colors and a bit of illumination on the dew, but the light was still diffused and therefore not too harsh.

By the time I took this next one, the lighting was harsher, which is why the picture is so high-contrast. I also don't like the out-of-focus water droplet bottom center. But I think my main concept, which was having the flowers juxtaposed against out-of-focus mountains in the background, was a success.

Finally, I took a good picture of a trillium, for once! It was quite an odyssey yesterday: there was a light breeze generally running through the valley, which made photographing forest-floor flowers like trillium quite difficult. But I took advantage of a moment of partial sunshine through the trees to get my shutter speed down and take this one (in fact, I think I underexposed it). Lightened up, it would be better. I like how the three leaves emerge from a center point hidden by the flower.

Now a couple other photographs worthy of posting. In this one, I like the color of the trunk and how all the branches swoop down in the same direction. The trees are hemlocks (I'm not 100% sure what variety).

This last one is of the view from one of the open areas along the trail. I usually am unhappy when I end up with really obvious uneven sky polarization, as you see in this photograph. But when I look at it, I think that perhaps it works. In this case, it adds and expansive feeling to the photograph that wouldn't be there if the sky were uniformly colored. Maybe.

The Primrose and the Pea

I'll start the post with the most successful pictures and end with the least. There are some pea flowers blooming in Discovery (particularly near the historic buildings). Happily, just as I'd hoped, I arrived soon enough after the rainfall that some of the flowers still had drops on them. Most of these flowers were quite low too the ground, which was where my new little tripod came in handy! Close up, I think these flowers have really interesting features.

I ended up really liking this next one, with the flower in focus and the buds on the stalk slightly out of focus. I think they provide an interesting counterpoint to the flower itself.

And now, a more classic view of fireweed, with the entirety of the stand faintly visible in the background. I tried a lot of different apertures for this - f/3, f/4.5, f/6.3, f/7.1, and f/8. The one I've posted here was f/6.3. I thought that this was the best at providing enough definition in the background to make out the fireweed without getting distracting. Admittedly, my instincts while shooting were that this would be the case. But when shooting digital, you might as well try it all!

The vetch flowers are already starting to look a bit motley, but some of them still look nice. I thought this closeup turned out acceptably well. I was trying to capture the sweep of the whole line of flowers behind those in the front; that didn't come out as clearly as I would have liked, although it is still somewhat visible.

Another, more successful attempt at photographing blackberry buds! The background is much better this time around. Unfortunately, I didn't get the buds quite as sharp as I should have, but they are acceptable at least.

Now, on to some of my only semi-successful photographs. These two are looking down on a fireweed stalk with different focus points. They're okay, but I'm thinking that they're just a bit busy.

That's all for now, folks. The meteorologists are telling me that the weather for the second half will be good. And I have some days off! So, assuming my sprained ankle heals in a timely fashion, you'll be seeing some new images shortly.